By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Behind a tremendous defensive performance, Valencia defeated Olympiacos Piraeus 56 – 63 on the road to improve to 8 – 6 in the EuroLeague regular season. This is the second year in a row and third consecutive game in which the Taronja leave Peace and Friendship Arena with a win over the Greek powerhouse.
Olympiacos fell to 7 – 7 after dropping its fourth game at home this season; the other defeats took place vs. Spanish teams as well. Georgios Bartzokas commented on his poor team’s performance in the post-game flash interview. “We had terrible percentage on threes and free throws, and [we also] missed a lot of layups”, the Greek coach commented.
In a very low-scoring game, Chris Jones (12 points, four rebounds), Stefan Jovic (12 points) and Damian Inglis (12 points) scored in double figures for Valencia.
Jones also made two key baskets down the stretch to help push back Olympiacos‘ comeback attempts, scoring for the 53 – 60 with a minute remaining. “In the first half we played good defense, in the second they played better defense but we continued with the same defense”, Alex Mumbru said.
Thomas Walkup had 13 points for Olympiacos while Kostas Papanikolaou added 12 points on 4-14 shots in a highly poor shooting night for their team that finished with 9 – 31 3-pointers and 9-16 free throws. The Reds took a 12 – 5 lead five minutes into the game but everything went downhill for them, with many turnovers and missed shots, even layups.
Jovic’s entrance from the bench helped the Valencia offense start to roll and his team went up 26 – 35 at halftime, also taking advantage of Olympiacos’ nine turnovers. “We controlled the whole game. It is an amazing feeling to beat Olympiacos in their own gym”, the Serbian playmaker said after getting the victory.
Valencia went ahead 31 – 43 halfway through the third period and kept controlling the game primarily thanks to its defense while also taking advantage of their opponents’ inability to make even their wide-open looks. Shaq McKissic brought Olympiacos at 50 – 55 with 2:40 to play and Papanikolaou made it 53 – 58 a minute later but their team was unable to turn the game around fully.
Filip Petrusev debuted for Olympiacos, playing eight minutes in the first half without taking any shot.